The Unsung Jews of Baseball: Sy Berger, Greg Harris and Jeff Idelson

Here in Michigan, it's been the least snowy winter in 125 years. Temperatures have been unseasonably warm. It seems to be the polar opposite to last year's Snowpocalypse. This mild winter, however, hasn't made me miss baseball season any less than winters past. Like most baseball fans, I spend the winter counting down the days until pitchers and catchers have to report for Spring Training marking the annual end to the off-season.

In the interest of not having an off-season hiatus from blogging about baseball, I thought I'd take a look at three Jewish men who have contributed to Major League Baseball in big ways, but haven't received the attention they deserve. With a Jewish commissioner (Bud Selig) and three Jewish guys affiliated with my hometown team alone (the Detroit Tigers' manager Brad Ausmus, infielder Ian Kinsler and pitcher Josh Zeid), there seems to be more Jews in Major League Baseball then ever before. Yet, while there are Jewish players and managers, team owners and agents, these three Jewish men are the unsung contributors to the American pastime.

You might never have heard of Sy Berger, Greg Harris or Jeff Idelson, but let me tell you about them and their gifts to the game of baseball.

Sy Berger, who died two weeks ago on December 14 at 91, was a chewing gum executive at the Topps Company. Berger joined Topps in 1947, and in 1951 turned his attention to the company's baseball cards, which had been simple gray and white photographs of baseball players superimposed on cardboard and used as a sales gimmick to get more people to buy tobacco products. Berger added color, a facsimile of the player's autograph and statistics. His designs were then printed on playing-card-sized pieces of cardboard and sold with packages of gum.

Sy Berger, creator of the modern baseball card

Sy Berger helped transform the baseball card into a pop-culture phenomenon that became a multi-million dollar business. As he liked to point out, they went from being a novel item that kids could buy with a few cents from doing their chores to entire collections that kids could sell and use the funds to pay for their college education. The baseball cards Sy Berger designed were collected and traded by kids and adults. Like any other collectible in the supply and demand market (coins, stamps, antiques, etc.) they each had a value and could be bought, sold and traded. In fact, it was that "value appreciation" that Berger said was the greatest change that had taken place in the baseball card industry because of the skyrocketing worth of many of the old cards. The bonus for Berger was schmoozing with the players while getting their authorization for Topps to use their names and pictures on its baseball cards. Berger retired from Topps in 1997, but stayed on as a consultant to the company for five years.

Hank Greenberg, Sandy Koufax and Jewish Baseball Players' Yom Kippur Dilemma

The Detroit Tigers are currently in a pennant race for the American League Central Division, where they currently have a razor thin half game lead on the Kansas City Royals. 80 years ago the Detroit Tigers were similarly in a pennant race for their division. That was the September that the team's star, Hank Greenberg, famously sat out the game on Yom Kippur. It was September 20, 1934 and the Detroit Tigers faced the New York Yankees in a key game late in the pennant race. While his participation was sorely needed, Hank Greenberg stayed true to his Jewish religion and attended synagogue instead at Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Detroit. The Tigers lost the game, but went on to win the 1934 American League pennant (the Tigers lost to the St. Louis Cardinals in the '34 World Series).

With Hall of Famer Lou Brock, Willie Horton's son Al and Hank Greenberg's son Steve Greenberg

It is interesting to note that Hank Greenberg had in fact played in a game ten days earlier on Rosh Hashanah, in which he led the Detroit Tigers to victory with two home runs. A local Detroit rabbi gave him permission to play on Rosh Hashanah and the Detroit News ran the headline on the front page, "Talmud Clears Greenberg for Holiday Play." The day following the Rosh Hashanah victory, the Detroit Free Press ran a banner headline that read simply, "Happy New Year, Hank."

Hank Greenberg Hall of Fame plaques will be given out before today's game at Comerica Park

In commemoration of the day Hank Greenberg chose to sit out the game on Yom Kippur, the Detroit Tigers and local Jewish community organizations like the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit and the Michigan Jewish Sports Foundation will celebrate Jewish Heritage Day at the Detroit Tigers game today. It will also be a chance to honor Hank Greenberg, who was the first Jewish player elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

The Jewish Infatuation For Jewish Baseball Players

About a month ago, just before Opening Day of the 2013 Major League Baseball season, I received an email from a newspaper reporter who asked if I had time available to discuss Jewish baseball players. I had recently read a fascinating review of John Rosengren's new Hank Greenberg book in the Wall Street Journal and the relationship between baseball and Judaism was very much on my mind. So naturally I agreed to talk with the reporter.

In his email, Charley Honey (love that name!) of the Grand Rapids Press wrote:

I'm working on a column about Hank Greenberg, a boyhood hero of my late father, who grew up in Detroit. A new bio of Hank, by John Rosengren, deals a lot with the challenges he faced as the first Jewish baseball star in the Bigs. I would like to talk with you about your perspective on Greenberg's impact on sports and culture, and how baseball has served as an entree into American life for racial and religious minorities.

Always being on the lookout for tie-ins between the greatest game and the world of faith, I thought Opening Day and this new bio seemed like a good opportunity. I realize rabbis like you are very busy this Passover week, but if you could carve out half an hour or so to talk to me within the next few days I'd love the chance. My column is due Tuesday morning. Of course, I will not be available after 4 p.m. Monday. :)

Charley and I had a great conversation that lasted well over an hour. I explained that there is a certain fetish we Jews have with Jewish baseball players. As Joseph Epstein wrote in his WSJ review of Rosengren's book, it's difficult for most baseball fans to come up with a list of Methodist, Baptist or Catholic Major League ballplayers, but for some reason we can all create our lineup of the best Jewish ballplayers who ever played the game. There's a certain pride that we Jews feel for our heroes like Hank Greenberg and Sandy Koufax.

Adam Greenberg Gets Another Chance in Majors

Hank Greenberg certainly remains the most famous and accomplished professional Jewish baseball player with that last name. However, this week Adam Greenberg was the "Greenberg" everyone was talking about.

I first learned about Adam Greenberg in an article that Ralph Woronoff sent me. An usher at Adat Shalom Synagogue in Farmington Hills, Michigan, Ralph knows I'm a baseball fan and thought I'd be interested in learning about the small club of former major leaguers who only appeared in one at-bat in the big leagues.

White Sox Move Yom Kippur Game for Fans, Youkilis

As an avid Detroit Tigers fan it's difficult to root for Kevin Youkilis and the Chicago White Sox. However, the team's recent decision to reschedule an upcoming night game to earlier that afternoon out of respect for Yom Kippur is worthy of praise.

I've written numerous times on this blog about Jewish Major League Baseball players whose decisions of whether or not to play on Yom Kippur (known as "the Sandy Koufax question") become fodder for debate and discussion. Kevin Youkilis explained his feelings on playing on the Jewish day of atonement in a recent article in Yahoo! Sports after his team rearranged its schedule to accommodate Jewish fans as well as their star third baseman.

"You have to stick with your beliefs," Youkilis said. "You can't worry about people who aren't influential in your life who say things or tell you you're wrong. I know Shawn Green had a tough time with it. It just depends upon the community. In Boston they probably don't even care. They'd want you to play."

The White Sox did something earlier this week that many baseball teams had previously claimed was impossible based on the rigidity of Major League Baseball over its schedule. (The Yankees and Red Sox moved a game from evening to afternoon to accommodate the Jewish fans of both teams in 2009.) The White Sox changed the start time for its game on Tuesday, September 25 game against the Cleveland Indians from 7:10 to 1:10, citing courtesy for the team's Jewish fans who will observe Yom Kippur beginning at nightfall. Even if the stated reason was for the fans, the team's decision was a relief to Youkilis who no longer had to make the difficult decision on whether he would play that night. Last year, Youkilis responded to "the Sandy Koufax question" in the Jewish Journal by saying that there are "plenty of people with strong feelings on each side. It wouldn't be an easy choice."

It seems like Jewish baseball players face the Yom Kippur dilemma each year, but it's only the more popular players in predominantly Jewish cities who are discussed. In recent years in addition to Youkilis, Ryan Braun (who's father is Jewish and is known as the "Hebrew Hammer"), Gabe Kapler and Shawn Green have responded to the Yom Kippur question by sitting out games in some years and playing in other years. Yom Kippur doesn't pose the same dilemma to Jewish pitchers like Scott Feldman of the Texas Rangers or Jason Marquis of the San Diego Padres who can be rescheduled in the starting rotation or simply not used in relief during that particular game.

Interestingly, this dilemma for baseball players has been named "The Sandy Koufax question" after Koufax sat the first game of the World Series in 1965. However, Koufax pitched in the second game instead so it wasn't the same sacrifice as Hank Greenberg who refused to play baseball on Yom Kippur in 1934, even though the Detroit Tigers were in the middle of a pennant race.

A funny story is often told about that Dodgers World Series game which had Don Drysdale pitching in Game 1 in place of Koufax. Drysdale gave up seven runs in 2 2/3 innings and when the manager came to pull him from the game, Drysdale deadpanned, "I bet right now you wish I was Jewish, too!" Koufax went on to lose Game 2.

Some baseball players view the decision to play or not on Yom Kippur to be a personal choice, but not everyone agrees. In an article in the Forward a couple years ago Hank Greenberg's granddaughter Melanie (Former MLB Deputy Commissioner Steve Greenberg's daughter) wrote, "Heavy though the burden may be, I believe that Jewish players share the same obligation as my grandfather — to serve as representatives for their people. Admittedly, he lived in different times. Jewish athletes, however, still have the ability to affect their communities."

At least this year the White Sox helped their star out and he didn't have to make a decision. Youkilis has said that he will fast and attend synagogue this Yom Kippur.